Mark Van Hoen - Invisible Threads

All titles composed and recorded by Mark Van Hoen in Los Angeles 2016
Photography & design by Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham

In mid 2016 I did a brief tour of the west coast with Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Daniel Mensche, Lee Bannon, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Pye Corner Audio and Marcus Fischer. The music of all these great artists and the experience of playing these shows with them all informed what would become ‘Invisible Threads’ which was primarily composed and recorded in the latter half of 2016. I had not played live at dates in such a dense cluster for many years, and the exposure to so much great music and the artists was inspiring. Other Touch artists were also an influence here - Claire M Singer, Jana Winderen and as ever Chris Watson (who has been an enduring influence from the moment I first heard Cabaret Voltaire in 1979)… along with my project ‘drøne’ with Mike Harding… the collaborative aspect of drøne brought up a few new paths in itself.

During the time I was recording the album I was editing audio and sound design for films - this too went some way to defining the structure and sound of ‘Invisible Threads’. At the time of recording several of the titles on the album, I had re-read 'The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion’, a short story by Edgar Allen Poe… and in some ways this record is a soundtrack to that.

The title ‘Invisible Threads’ refers to the intangible connection between all of the musical and personal influences that brought this record into being.

Instrumentation/sound sources

Modular synthesizer notably using modules manufactured by Make Noise, The Harvestman & Mutable Audio
Software - Ableton Live, Pro Tools and many plugins - heavily used were Max, Soundhack and Native Instruments’ Reaktor & Kontakt
Sound libraries from Spitfire Audio.
Fender Rhodes piano, Fender Jaguar guitar. Farfisa Organ, Vox continental.
Notably no analogue synthesizers were used on this album - probably the first time I’ve made a record without them since ‘Aurobindo: Involution’ in 1994
A few field recordings made on my very modest Zoom H4n recorder (mainly domestic sounds) made it onto the record
Some ‘found’ sources also are present, mainly from vinyl records and YouTube.

Reviews:

Loop (Spain):

UK artist Mark Van Hoen is producing electronic music since 1981. He played bass guitar and synthesizer on the superb Seefeel’s "Polyfusia" album, one of the seminal bands of the '90s. He works under his own name and worked as well under the Locust moniker. Now he lives and works in Los Angeles. This record was composed and recorded in Los Angeles in 2016, inspired by Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Daniel Menche, Lee Bannon, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Pye Corner Audio and Marcus Fischer, who were on tour west coast in the USA, alongwith Van Hoen.

In the meantime our protagonist was recording the album he was editing and making sound design for films, which influenced the structure to the album. Several of the titles on the album were influenced by the reading he made in those days of the apocalyptic Edgar Allan Poe’s short story "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion".

Van Hoen with his modular synthesizers, sound design software, piano, guitar, organ, field recordings and library sounds, is the instrumental and sound sources that make up the seven pieces on "Invisible Threads". The strong cinematic nature of the music suggests images at all times. Ambient atmospheres transport to intimate and cozy spaces. "Opposite Day" is a good example of this, where the organ notes are suspended in the air and keep resonating. On "The Yes_No Game" emerges a female vocalist whose singing emerges from the background. "Aether" with its subtle melody conjure up composer Angelo Badalamenti.

"Flight Of Fancy" and "Instable" show a disturbing aspect in which a dark plot is woven. Mark van Hoen undoubtedly produces one of the best albums of 2018. [Guillermo Escudero]

Brainwashed (USA):

Mark Van Hoen's latest album is the result of a series of live performances with other Touch luminaries, such as Simon Scott and Philip Jeck, that he participated in all throughout 2016. This experience manifests itself in a somewhat different than expected way on Invisible Threads, because this final result is purely a solo work. However, it was these previous collaborations and performances that lead to Van Hoen approaching the record from different perspectives and with a variety of instrumentation, resulting in a diverse, yet overall uniform sounding album.

While he intentionally avoided using one of his staples on Invisible Threads, vintage analog synthesizers, Mark did utilize modular synthesis throughout the record. Right from the opening of "Weathered" this can be heard: a rich bed of layered electronics set the stage as he patches in some occasionally shrill tones and a pleasantly dissonant crunch, but with a tasteful level of restraint. For "Opposite Day," he follows a similar pattern, blending mostly elegant ambient electronics with just the right amount of heavy low end vibration.

Even some conventional piano sounds appear on "Aethēr," culminating in a melodic progression that continues and builds throughout the piece. The combination is one that, once a bit of dissonant ambience comes in as a contrast, makes for a rather conventional, song-like sounding piece of music. The shimmering, sustained electronics that are the focus on "Dark Night Sky Paradox" also have a nice pleasantness to them, and fits in with Van Hoen's experience doing sound design for films given the end result’s film score mood. Later, a bit of drama comes from the heavy electronics that enshroud "Flight of Fancy" and, with the piece’s dense and brittle electronics have a cinematic quality as well.

Like any good album, however, Invisible Threads has some more sinister moments to balance out the more pleasant light ones. The varied electronics and processed field recordings on "The Yes/No Game" make for a different sounding piece of music, one punctuated by a sense of bleakness in its light drift. Compared to many of the others here it is a more sparse mix, but what is there carries a significant amount of emotional weight. The album closer "Instable" also especially stands out with its ghostly haunting sound. There are some large electronic swells throughout, but Van Hoen blends transient layers throughout like passing spirits, resulting in a spectral, ghostly closing to the album.

There does not seem to be any specific conceptual theme linking the seven pieces of Invisible Threads, other than his intentional use of different instrumentation, but Mark Van Hoen's latest work definitely has a cohesive feel to them sonically. As an album, it has a great sense of variation and diversity from song to song, with a strong blend of pleasant, ambient electronics and heavier, darker passages. Consistent from beginning to end, Invisible Threads is an excellent record of electronic music. [Creaig Dunton]

I Heart Noise (USA):

Mark Van Hoen, veteran of the electronic music scene as a visit to his web site will attest, has had an extensive career as both a solo and band (Locust) member. Now entering his 50’s, he continues to explore sound and texture to create some unsettling pieces of music. Invisible Threads is his latest solo work. Informed by a love of Edgar Allen Poe and the experiences of touring with other Touch artists (see the interview below).

This is a dark ride. An absorbing soundtrack to a rather hesitant night of self-examination. Cinematic in scope, claustrophobic in execution, the album opens with “Weathered” – a wide-screen wash of dark expectation set against a vast ebbing pulse of keyboards, half-heard voices and static interference. This mood is perpetuated by second track, Dark NIght Sky Paradox, a sound constantly threatening direction but perpetually on the edge of collapse. Anxious music.

“Opposite Day” reminded me slightly of TG’s “Exotica”, water and bird sounds mix with chimes to gently soothe. The Yes_No Game is suspended tones and a lone, lamenting female voice. Think Eno, with a Beth Gibbons being recorded at the far end of a very long corridor. Aether is a simple keyboard (not synth, Van Hoen is at pains to point out) that reminded me of Japan’s “Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer” , but heard through a fug of low-level sonic interference.

Again, at no point can one relax with this music. At least, I couldn’t, It’s not Ambient. It is suffused with an unyielding, unrelenting dread and demands to be faced head-on. Reckoned with, almost. Flight of Fancy is anything but. Nothing is playful and all of it unsettles. Don’t play this to chill-out to or mollify dinner guests. It will set people’s teeth on edge and may actually make people a bit angry. I love it.

This is an excellent release from Touch and despite my anxious emotional reaction to it, I’ve found myself returning to it frequently over the past few days, perhaps finding within its structure and sounds a suitable soundtrack to these dark, strange and frightening days. Bravo, Mr Van Hoen. Bravo.

Toneshift (USA):

Touch releases the latest adventure by Mark Van Hoen just today (25th May 2018), its called Invisible Threads (CD/Digital). Let’s attempt an unveiling as I need to play catch-up since his last record I experienced was 2012’s amazing The Revenant Diary. Starting with the top track Weathered, the mood is strangely symphonic, light crackle and hiss over an otherwise moody, darkened mid-range synth drone. It’s pure aural theater from the start. The foreground actions are minimal while the back is bold and shape-shifting, with a random radio frequency throwing practically inaudible voices that are assimilated into the mix. Dark Night Sky Paradox continues without the tail end, and adding a slightly higher pitched tone creating a bit of an alarm. This feels like an extended overture in suspension.

This has inflections of his past work throughout, but Van Hoen has matured in his editing, and paring down any excess, keeping each track here packed with drama. The air is goosepimple inducing on Opposite Day. It’s part tropical forest meets part space exploration, with a tinge of shadow play. He’s heading into the world of independent soundtrack scoring in the foggy space created on The Yes_No Game. Strident synths, lapping waves and bare whispers become space age symphonic. This blend of unyielding artful restraint is also indicative of label head Jon Wozencroft‘s ghostly green coverart, like a found object from another galaxy.

It’s been since 2010 since I saw him play live (my Resident Advisor nod) and this is a great chance to catch up with a true sound artist. The final three tracks continue are bathed in the balance of luminous trepidation, most notable in the vast reverb of Flight of Fancy. It roars tensely, quietly into Instable which is quite a dizzying mix of a swirly synthesizer that sounds as if it’s being broadcast inside a cathedral. The conclusion is on-point, especially if you appreciate a great disappearing act. [TJ Norris]

The Revenant Diary feels like a long time ago now: perhaps because it was. Six years is long time (although Mark Van Hoen has released two albums as The Locust in between). And yet, it continues to haunt me in some way. Returning with Invisible Threads, Mark Van Hoen continues to explore ominous, shadowy territories.

This is a dark, immersive work. I’d had a tough – and very strange – day at work. Oftentimes, when weary, stressed, dazed, I will select an instrumental work as my review project for the evening, as I find I can simultaneously write and relax, allowing the sound to wash over me. It transpires that this may have been precisely the album – or not, depending on perspective – for the occasion. I say, staring blankly. Not really listening, not really engaged, and certainly not typing. Not thinking, and not doing anything else. I don’t know exactly how long I remained like this, to all intents and purposes, immobile, in a sort of fugue state.

On returning, and attempting to remain focused, I find Van Hoen’s dark, churning sonic nebulae every bit as arresting and distracting.

The album’s inspiration stems from multiple sources, not least of all Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion which he re-read while on tour. The album is in some respect designed as a soundtrack to this, but equally, the Invisible Threads refers to the intangible connection between all of the musical and personal influences that brought the record into being.

In truth, the context and background have only limited effect on the reception. The reception is pure: a direct engagement between sonic output and listener.

Low, humming, hovering tones undulate across the album’s seven subtle compositions. Creeping, interweaving, fragmentations of light dance across these cold, bleak expanses which often bleed together. Even the silence between seems to provide an integral part of the listening experience and contributes to the shape of the overall arc of the album.

It’s distinctly background but in a way that fulfils that criteria of ambience that affects and colours the mood rather than being sonic wallpaper, disappearing into the background unnoticed. Repeated listens to Invisible Threads have not lifted my mood: instead, I feel claustrophobic, tense, weighted by an indefinable oppression. I give up: my critical vocabulary is as exhausted as my mental state when faced with this album at this time. I take a shower. Reflect. Accept that perhaps this work is so immersive that I am, temporarily, drowned.

Norman Records (UK):

After an enlightening and enriching tour with a number of Touch luminaries, Mark Van Hoen channeled his inspiration into the pieces that would become Invisible Threads, which have been layered up out of a mass of modular synthesis, sound samples from records, domestic life and YouTube, various instruments, and computer processing. The resulting seven tracks create an extremely immersive soundworld all of its own, despite its many crucial roots. CD on Touch.

and a staff reviewer wrote:

Former Seefeel member and sometime Locust -- as well as having tucked numerous productions in his own name under his belt -- Mark Van Hoen continues his long line of detailed, often intense ambient electronic albums with Invisible Threads. In the twenty-plus years he’s been making music, Van Hoen -- stellar himself, of course -- has kept some equally illustrious company; of late, on a string of live dates stretching back to 2016 he shared a stage with Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Kara-Lis Coverdale and Pye Corner Audio.

Those experiences seem to have played a part in his continuing evolution; elements of sound design and techno influences have filtered in so that individual parts are increasingly granular and would probably bear inspection under a microscope, should we have the time. I couldn’t possibly do this album justice by summarising it as ‘pretty drone with dark ambient undercurrents’. In other words, there’s a lot going on and there are many depths beneath the surface. You can probably ignore the ‘Danger’ and ‘Hidden Currents’ warning signs, though. It’s a perfectly safe and enjoyable swim; also, Mark is a trained lifeguard, which helps.

Waves of sound -- in both the literal and metaphorical senses -- wash over the listener to create a feel of ebb and flow; it’s an immersive as well as fluid listen. The track ‘The Yes_No Game’ is a good example of this, as a woman’s voice, previously obscured, periodically emerges as the swells subside; it’s a call, an invitation to plunge into the waters. I could happily listen to this track alone on repeat for hours… ‘Opposite Day’ starts gently with some pleasing dissonances, sub-aquatic rumbles of bass and some delicate strums and harmonious chimes. It’s all very pleasant but don’t expect to be lulled into slumber; there be darkness here. Sweet, reassuring darkness.

VITAL (Netherlands):

Also on Touch is the latest CD by former Seefeel member Mark van Hoen. As far as I know he's been on Touch for some time now, including his drøne duo with label boss Mike Harding (which is not something I heard). Two years ago Van Hoen toured the west coast of America with a bunch of Touch and related artists and along with influences of Claire M Singer, Jana Winderen and Chris Watson, Van Hoen set himself to compose the pieces on 'Invisible Threads'. Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Conversation Of Eiros And Charmion’ inspired the title of the pieces, and so he says "this record is a soundtrack to that". Van Hoen uses a variety of tools, modular synthesizers, software, piano, guitar, organs and bit of field recordings and some found sounds from Youtube and vinyl, and no analogue synthesizers. Unlike the Strafe F.R. disc I have just been overwhelmed with, Van Hoen has not a lot of interest in playing out many variations or approaches. In these seven pieces (in total forty-one minutes) they more is very quiet, highly atmospheric and perhaps the perfect comedown record after the massive ear cleansing of Strafe F.R. It is not to say that the music from Van Hoen is necessarily 'easy going'; his ambient approach is that of uneasy unrest. There is always a rough edge to be spotted in these pieces, which is something I like very much. It is perhaps something not entirely new but it works wonderfully. Van Hoen is someone who knows what he's doing when it comes to ambient music. It is all-spacious, surely, but there is some visible rust on this spaceship. Maybe the same kind of beautiful spookiness one finds in the work of Poe, I was thinking. When playing Strafe F.R. I had the urge to play the entire output of the group again, straight away, and with Van Hoen I wanted to stick it on repeat, find that Poe story and read that again. And if the story were too short, I'd probably carry on with a few others of his. Unfortunately there is only so much one can do in a single day. Sad but true, but surely one evening soon I will find the time to just do that. [FdW]

Mark Van Hoen, quite renowned under his alias Locust and a founding member of Seefeel, returns with the first release under his own name on the legendary label Touch in more than 20 years.

Invisible Threads is a cohesive collection of tracks made after touring around the West Coast of USA with artists like Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Daniel Menche, Lee Bannon, Kara-Lis Coverdale, among others. It’s also inspired by other Touch artists and by his collaborative project Drøne with Mike Harding. The album is deep and emotional, with sustained strings and textures floating around in a shady, spectral way on the opener ‘Weathered’. A more drone aspect on the echoes of the fading ‘Dark Night Sky Paradox’, and the layered and meditative ‘The Yes_No Game’.

You can also feel nostalgia on the evoking ‘Aether’, one of our favorites, which also includes hints of a piano and makes you want to play it again and again. But then it can also get darker and more heavily loaded, like on ‘Flight Of Fancy’, which is reiterative, expanding and rising on its intentions. But same as the last mentioned song might sound thicker, the closing title ‘Instable’ can also feel thin in a way, with recurrent wind-like sounds unleashing digital howls that yearn for a time that might have not existed. A more oneiric vibe can be perceived on the calm ‘Opposite Day’, which forms melodies over a bass sound that roots back to the earth. Field recordings of what seems to be falling water and outdoor sounds complete the palette. No analogue synthesizers were used on this album, which is a rare circumstance on Van Hoen’s recent recordings.

Invisible Threads is the type of album that, similar to other notable releases on Touch, must be heard with a serious soundsystem, or at least some decent headphones. The experience might turn trascendent. [Paranoid]

Mark Van Hoen, veteran of the electronic music scene as a visit to his web site will attest, has had an extensive career as both a solo and band (Locust) member. Now entering his 50’s, he continues to explore sound and texture to create some unsettling pieces of music. Invisible Threads is his latest solo work. Informed by a love of Edgar Allen Poe and the experiences of touring with other Touch artists (see the interview below).

This is a dark ride. An absorbing soundtrack to a rather hesitant night of self-examination. Cinematic in scope, claustrophobic in execution, the album opens with “Weathered” – a wide-screen wash of dark expectation set against a vast ebbing pulse of keyboards, half-heard voices and static interference. This mood is perpetuated by second track, Dark NIght Sky Paradox, a sound constantly threatening direction but perpetually on the edge of collapse. Anxious music.

“Opposite Day” reminded me slightly of TG’s “Exotica”, water and bird sounds mix with chimes to gently soothe. The Yes_No Game is suspended tones and a lone, lamenting female voice. Think Eno, with a Beth Gibbons being recorded at the far end of a very long corridor. Aether is a simple keyboard (not synth, Van Hoen is at pains to point out) that reminded me of Japan’s “Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer” , but heard through a fug of low-level sonic interference.

Again, at no point can one relax with this music. At least, I couldn’t, It’s not Ambient. It is suffused with an unyielding, unrelenting dread and demands to be faced head-on. Reckoned with, almost. Flight of Fancy is anything but. Nothing is playful and all of it unsettles. Don’t play this to chill-out to or mollify dinner guests. It will set people’s teeth on edge and may actually make people a bit angry. I love it.

This is an excellent release from Touch and despite my anxious emotional reaction to it, I’ve found myself returning to it frequently over the past few days, perhaps finding within its structure and sounds a suitable soundtrack to these dark, strange and frightening days. Bravo, Mr Van Hoen. Bravo. [Ascetist]